That thing has been a major pain in the drain. This summer, it stopped working, refusing to cool during the hottest of weeks in June when everyone else’s stopped working, too, so it was a sweaty 4 days before it could get fixed - and a wonderful happy-birthday-to-me it was indeed to feel the cooling effects. This morning, I was standing in the kitchen trying to figure out why my toes were so cold. I looked over at the little weather station on the wall. 60.9 degrees. The thermostat was not responding, no matter how many times I punched it up and I was really ready to punch it off the wall when I sat down to google some reasons why furnaces do not turn on.

Although the one in the video is not my furnace (the one in the basement is a Lennox Signature Collection, allegedly top of the line, but really a piece of crap), the same theory applied. There’s a little stick seated in the path of the flames, so when the furnace fires up, it does not exceed a certain temperature and explode your house. If it’s dirty, it won’t work and it won’t let the furnace work, either.

It was easy to fix, and I’m glad to have an engineer around the house and to have learned a little about a lot in the process. The house is a balmy 74. So dreamy.

Yesterday, we took a trip to the Melvin Price Dam in Alton, IL. We made the same trip last year when it was 35 degrees F and we did not wear jackets that time either, only this time the wind speeds were low enough to do the whole tour, including the one 80 ft in the air on top of the dam.

Regardless of the hypothermic body, watching a 1,200 foot barge loaded to the gils lock in and out was a feat of engineering brilliance. I have enclosed two pictures showing the barge in with the back wall up as the water was drained out, and then the front swing gates opened, allowing the vessel to enter the river at the new height. I did not realize how many thousands of pounds of commodities are moving via river or how a shut down can affect global markets. It took almost 20 years to build the entire situation to its current state and even survived the flood of '93 to open in 1994.

Additionally, while there, I spotted a rabbit with its little babies suckling in the stuffed animals exhibit in the museum and thought to myself how much we do to animals for the sake of human education.

Zhu canceled his show in February to go back to the studio. I sanction that decision wholeheartedly. Power to the music!

The lino cutters and rubber brayer arrived in the mail today, so I’m ready to get carving a design. What if I just gave them away, would anyone order one?

My uncle owns a sign shop. The cleaner and easier way to do all of this is to etch a design onto metal, so I’m told, but I want to make it by hand. Maybe I’ll use some tin snips eventually, but for now, rubber, paper, and ink.

And I did not find the cyanotypes solutions locally after all, but because I had to search and talk to people about it, I have found a new printmaking supply store called McClains, a cool paint and ink place called Daniel Smith; yes, I have given in to the internets for the solution I needed. But I didn’t want to.

Leaving off with some hot-damn Gemini What So Not.

Also, randomly, Eddlin, like me, is a Cancer, the ultimate water sign, ruled by the heart, water, the moon, and iced sugar cookies. And, maybe I've merged with my main character.